6 To Aim (1/2)
Gin looked at his watch. It was 2:30AM.
He had just finished his workout at Force Force, a workout that he immediately regretted. His entire upper body felt like it was going to fall apart, and he had convinced himself that it was only by fate that he was still in one piece.
As he made his way home through 5th Avenue, Central, an incredibly beautiful girl with pink hair and a seemingly large backpack walked towards him. As he passed her, he made a mental note about this weird backpack, but was too fatigued to ponder further.
Amber turned the corner and continued through 23rd Street, towards her apartment. She was unknowingly being watched.
Hidden on the opposite rooftop was Xero, who's sniper rifle was locked onto her. Due to the height of the building, he had full vision of her for the past 20 minutes, but had he not made a move. Until now.
As she reached her doorstep, Xero shot 2 blocks of ice at her feet, rooting her in place. Amber looked down at her feet in shock then quickly turned her eyes to Xero's position, instantly pinpointing his location. She immediately reached for her bag and equipped her hand cannon to counter the second round of ice shots with her own fire blasts, before firing two more shots at her feet to melt the ice and free herself.
She returned her eyes to the attacker, or at least to where he was, as he had repositioned himself onto a lower terrace. There he had fired 8 more rounds in quick succession, however these ice shards were larger and trapped Amber in a large cube formation. Xero immediately fired a 9th round at the cube, creating a blizzard atmosphere and severely slowing Amber's movements.
After a quick observation of the trap, Amber shot one continous blast of fire within the cube, melting it away and freeing up her mobility. She made a beeline towards Xero's building and shot a fireball at the terrace before he could get another shot off of his own. As he fell he shot 3 small bursts of snow below him to break his fall.
As soon as he landed he swiftly performed a roll to stand, only to see Amber directly in front of him, and both aimed their weapons at each other's heads. Their faces were dead serious until Amber recognised him.
”Xero what the heck?! You could've killed me!” she said furiously.
”If I wanted to kill you, I would've done so already” he replied with a soft voice.
”And if I wanted to kill you I'd be doing so right now! What the heck do you want?!”
Neither was incorrect. Xero possessed a greater advantage at a further distance whilst Amber currently had the upper hand point blank.
”I... just wanted to talk” Xero replied calmly, as he lowered his rifle.
Amber stared at him blankly for exactly 4.2 seconds.
”WE TALK WITH OUR MOUTHS YOU MORON!” she yelled, as she (playfully yet violently) smacked his head several times with her hand cannon. ”You've got some nerve to shoot at me out of knowhere then claim that you come in peace.”
”Sorry about that, my finger slipped.” he said cooly, scratching his head and offering a pathetic smile.
Amber stared at him yet again with a blank expression, this time for 5.3 seconds, not buying any of it.
”THEN DON'T AIM AT ME YOU IDIOT! AND WHAT A LOAD OF CRAP, YOU WOULDNT BE SO RECKLESS..”
We must skip ahead a bit into the story, as the friendly beatdown was too harsh and cruel to visualise lol.
5 minutes later, Xero sat silently with an ice pack on his head (produced by his own rifle) and a hot chocolate. Sat opposite to him was Amber, who had finally calmed down and invited him upstairs to her place for coffee. She took a sip of her frappucino (again, ice courtesy of Xero's rifle) before breaking the silence.
”I'm not joining Intel” she said, staring at her drink.
”They're not inviting you. Besides, that was your dream, Amber. You've always wanted to be part of Ops.”
”It WAS my dream. They had the chance to take me and they ble-”
”No, Amber. YOU had the chance to take it and YOU blew it, quite literally.”
Amber thought back to her time at the ZPF training camp. She was an extremely passionate trainee, dedicating her entire being into succeeding in Intel. She had an affinity for short and mid-range heavy artillery, and her skill with the gun was so great she had earned an Ultra-Rare sOr [Inferno] after only her first year. This sOr embedded her sOr into a large hand cannon, her firearm of choice even back then. Throughout her days at the academy both her skill and determination made her sOr and herself synonymous on campus, being nicknamed ”The Inferno”. Out of all 500 candidates, she was favourited for one of the two exclusive places at Intel, the Kingdom's Official Intelligence Agency (what an original name :D)).
Xero was also favourited for this specialised position, and his abilities were equally recognised. He was also bestowed an Ultra-Rare sOr [Glacial] after his first year and, having specialised in long range combat, utilised this sOr with his signature sniper rifle. His reputation as ”The Glacial” mirrored that of Amber and after both recieving their sOr they formed a duo.
The choice of ”mirrored” instead of ”rivalled” is significant because their dynamic was vastly different to that of Gale and Hikari's. One could argue that both relationships were formed on the foundation of two powerful individuals, however that is the only fair comparison. Gale and Hikari were genuine friends with some friendly competition, whilst Xero and Amber did not get along at all , at least on the surface.
Outside of battle, their personalities could not have been more different. Amber was incredibly hot-tempered (pun intended yet lazy :p), and would constantly yell at Xero for every little thing that ticked her off. Xero, on the other hand, was incredibly calm and cool (pun, again, intended), and countered Amber's tantrums with logic, reason, and calm tone.